The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them).

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

The week just gone was not a good writing week–the election had banged me around more than I thought, and we’re hitting the pointy end of the semester, so good habits fell by the wayside. I did get the rough framework for my novella’s final act down, though, even if it’s a little scrappy.

My big goal for this week is getting the habits back on track, and getting that final act in place so I can flesh out the middle.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I’m a huge fan of Joe Lansdale, and in particular his Hap & Leonard books, but after devouring the first half of the series a few years back I ran into a roadblock in the form of Captains Outrageous. It’s a book where the tenor of the series shifts a little: more recurring characters start appearing, the primary character’s lives start to settle down as they hit middle age, and the book doesn’t have the lean efficiency of Lansdale’s earlier novels. So I’d keep starting it, then setting it aside.

This week I finally sat down and read it, largely using it as a test case for some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about with regards to the thesis.

And this time I devoured the book, gulping down the narrative in huge bites. The stuff that Lansdale does extremely well is still there, but the series expectations have shifted a little–Captains Outrageous feels a lot like a pilot episode, showing us characters undergoing a moment of profound change that will guide their story from this point on. Given that they’ve been relatively iconic, up to this point, the subconscious reacts to the shift as I read.

What action do I need to take?

Marking. I have a small pile of papers that need to be graded, and no real desire to do them at the moment.